After the great responses on the "slinging style and accuracy" poll I started I was wondering what you guys consider accurate?Is decent accuracy being able to hit a soda can at 30 yards, or a barn at 100? How do you personally gauge your accuracy?Also, what kind of targets/distances do you sling at?

Ben

EDIT:

I don't like to start extra threads so I thought I'd throw this in there.I went down the the river the other day and in one 2 hour slinging session after I had thrown practically a thousand stones and my arm was about to fall off I noticed that both my paracord slings had sustained considerable wear. Are there any slings that are durable and aren't susceptible to water and dirt? I live in the pacific northwest, USA and it is wet and muddy year-round. Any ideas?

I consider great accuracy hitting something about the size of a full grown rabbit half the time from 25 meters. Or something about 1/5th the size of a Diana target from the Balearic islands. I consider "Master"-class accuracy being able to hit a bird out of the air at 20 meters or a running rabbit regularly at a similar distance. This keeps the whole "Master Slinger" title down to a minimum, as it should be.

As far as your second issue, I've modified the Apache sling into something that works well in wet or dry and with virtually no wear on it. I've slung thousands of stones through mine in the last 5 months or so and there is not a sign of wear anywhere on the release cord without any need for whipping. Let me know if this interests you and I will see if I can PM you instructions on making it.

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Aussie

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Re: What is "accurate"?Reply #3 - Feb 22nd, 2012 at 11:37pm

Both your accuracy examples would in fact be quite good.

To hit a standard "Coke can" CONSISTENTLY at 30 m is very, very, good! Note I said, "consistently", which means more than 50% of the time. Anyone can fluke it occassionally.

Barn at 100m isn't so hard although there the main factor is the distance. Unless you've got good ammo hitting anything distant gets a little chancey as poor quality stones veer off course so easily. Even with good stones anyone who can hit an object the size of a car at 100m (again consistently) is doing well.

To answer your second question .......... "No". Different slings may last better than others but they all wear out eventually and the ALL get dirty.

PS. Sorry to contradict you Morphy, my friend, but I've yet to see a sling that didn't wear to some degree

I think it would be to hit a standard archery target (bulls eye) at 20yards every time.

As for wear, check out where the wear is at the most. With a braided sling one would stitch leather or whip over it. with paracord you could try covering it in tape. The purpose isn't to prevent wear at all, but to allow only a cheaper, easily replacable part of the sling to possible break. That way you can simply reapply it. It would be better to make some sort of hard/tough case that would prevent wear at all, but it's much more efficient this way.

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Jaegoor

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Re: What is "accurate"?Reply #7 - Feb 23rd, 2012 at 8:03am

I had already suggested a meeting to ascertain this.

30 m a very good distance is for a Sling for the hunting.

And on jedenfall I know that I can shoot a stone really 300 m away.

Also in the antiquity were Far shots of ballistic nature. It went therefore of covering a big surface with several hundred Slingern. It was not about a single aim.

Each was present in Sollér, it knows as hard can be Balearic state kind to fulfil.Can they state also themselves?So before we further talk, I invite them herewith warmly to a Slinger meeting in Germany.To floors becomes to Balearic and German Standarts. But also slingen from full run and Slinger chess will be on offer. If they get themselves a valid passport and they come across. Then we start to speak once again of Standarts.

I'm not sure how much truth ther is to this but I remember hearing on here that Roman slingers were required to hit a man sized target at 200yards. True or not I am sure it is possible, and I would consider that to be long range acuracy. Real world close range acuracy I would think would be like being able to hunt small game and consitently would require some major accuracy.

My goal right now is to just not to miss which thus far is going pretty well. I have aquired a very consistent realease time it is just the consistency in form and hand placement for the throw that I need to perfect as I work on smaller targets. Your accuracy isn't as much judged by us as it is by yourself.

"Like tying a stone to a sling is the giving of honor to a fool" Proverbs 26:8

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fletch_man

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Re: What is "accurate"?Reply #10 - Feb 23rd, 2012 at 9:53am

If its your cords wearing, go down to the hardware store and buy shrink wrap tubing for cables. Thin ones. Put a section over the cords and hit it with the hairdryer on high. Very tough stuff. Used by eletricians to bundle cables and protect them from abrasion.

For throwing at the river, my slings are made of braided nylon curtain cord, I think about 4 or 5mm. They get wet and muddy but after a year or so, are not showing much signs of wear. Some of the rocks are smooth, some are rough, all are muddy.

I thought I was a fairly good shot out to about 15m or so, I tried small game hunting this year and was humbled very quickly. I think hitting a pop can at 30m for 3 of 5 throws is outstanding accuracy and is probably well below what the old timers could do. I think that you should be able to sling almost as well as you shoot a traditional bow, slings were used for hunting small game and especially waterfowl, the main advantage is that you lose a rock instead of an arrow if you miss.

And Jaegoor is correct, pick one style and stay with it, slinging is like all shooting sports, consistancy equals sucess.

I consider hitting a man sized target at 100 yards pretty good accuracy. Hitting a tree trunk of phone pole at fifty yards is good in my book. Have you tried using West Country whipping over the areas that are wearing, Carbon. It works well for me. I usually use jute for that purpose. It's very easy to work with. The whipping doesn't diminish the sling's effectiveness at all. http://www.animatedknots.com/westcountry/index.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Websit...

I think that you should be able to sling almost as well as you shoot a traditional bow

I agree with this statement. Right now none of us that I know of are at this point. I think one big reason is this idea that seems prevalent among some slingers that since "A sling throws stones, I can therefore pick up any round river stone and with enough practice be able to have amazing accuracy."

Nope. Not going to happen. Tell me one projectile weapon that you can use inconsistent ammo and gain great accuracy? A bow is much easier to use than a sling. If it's necessary with a bow, why on earth would it not be for a sling?

There are basically two main factors for accuracy with a sling. Pre-release accuracy which is based on form and stone weight and post-release accuracy which is based on stone shape, and to a lesser extent (except at long ranges) wind, and release cord obstruction.

Just getting all stones or clay ammo at a decent weight and consistent weight for that matter will greatly improve control and offer the slinger the ability to actually improve on a solid foundation rather than a constantly shifting one. But if your ammo is too light, good luck getting really accurate... Anyways, I better end this, I get started on this subject and I just keep going and going...

To hit a standard "Coke can" CONSISTENTLY at 30 m is very, very, good! Note I said, "consistently", which means more than 50% of the time. Anyone can fluke it occassionally.

Barn at 100m isn't so hard although there the main factor is the distance. Unless you've got good ammo hitting anything distant gets a little chancey as poor quality stones veer off course so easily. Even with good stones anyone who can hit an object the size of a car at 100m (again consistently) is doing well.

To answer your second question .......... "No". Different slings may last better than others but they all wear out eventually and the ALL get dirty.

PS. Sorry to contradict you Morphy, my friend, but I've yet to see a sling that didn't wear to some degree

It's ok Aussie. Obviously every sling wears at some point, but I can assure you my modified version of the Apache wears at a rate much, much slower than any other sling I've ever used. Offset your cords behind the pouch in the right way and the stone almost never touches them upon release. Use a release tab and the cord never cracks upon release. Those are your two main wear areas. I've used my current cords for probably 5000 throws and I am looking at it right now and there is not a mark anywhere on the cords. No exaggeration and absolutely no need for whipping.